The new Jeffrey Dahmer show is retraumatizing victims' families, and here is how they are fighting back

The new Netflix show Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story was recently released, and the family of Dahmer's victims are rightfully angry about it, particularly because they were never contacted about the show; instead of the show giving "victims a voice" (which Netflix stated was their goal), the families of the victims are actually just being retraumatized. Christian Zilko of IndieWire explains:

Eric Perry, cousin of Jeffrey Dahmer victim Errol Lindsey, spoke out on Twitter to express his discomfort with "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story," Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's new Netflix series that stars Evan Peters as the infamous serial killer.

"I'm not telling anyone what to watch, I know true crime media is huge rn, but if you're actually curious about the victims, my family (the Isbell's) are pissed about this show," he wrote. 

Perry also noted that because the murders are public record, producers of true crime shows are not required to notify the families of the victims they portray. Perry says that nobody from "Monster" contacted his family, and that they found out about the show at the same time as everyone else.

"So when they say they're doing this 'with respect to the victims' or 'honoring the dignity of the families,' no one contacts them," he wrote. "My cousins wake up every few months at this point with a bunch of calls and messages and they know there's another Dahmer show. It's cruel."

Instead of focusing on the killer, and further facilitating the sick "Dahmer is hot" fan club, let's learn about and honor the victims, something Twitter user HotGirlJo has done, through putting together this thread with information about each victim. In presenting the thread they write, "Let's not romanticize Jeffrey Dahmer just because he is played by Evan Peters. Remember the victims. A thread about each victim and who they were."